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Georgia Gun Crime Reduction Initiative

The district has partnered with the Governor of Georgia to reduce illegal firearms violence through a statewide initiative. Representatives of the district serve on the Governor's illegal firearms violence working group.

In February 2001, the Governor launched the initiative through an address to 500 law enforcement officers at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth, Georgia. The initiative primarily focuses on local, rather than federal or state, efforts to reduce firearms violence, but will inevitably benefit all law enforcement operations. Under the Governor's initiative, a firearms intelligence center will eventually provide assistance to law enforcement throughout the state in evaluating trends involving firearms and provide case assistance for firearms violations.

Effective January 1, 2000, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations procedures were changed to provide notification to local law enforcement, local prosecutors, and local parole and probation supervisors of a felon's attempt to purchase a firearm, so felons making the attempt could be arrested and prosecuted. State parole and probation procedures have been modified to require that probationers, parolees, and supervisees sign an acknowledgment that they cannot possess firearms or ammunition, and the state sentencing package will soon contain a similar acknowledgment as part of the sentencing record.